Lawmakers split on what to do with salary windfall

Springfield-area lawmakers are split on what they plan to do with a windfall pay raise they'll see in the new budget year.

By Doug FinkeState Capitol Bureau

Springfield-area lawmakers are split on what they plan to do with a windfall pay raise they'll see in the new budget year.

Some said they'll donate the money to charity, one said he'll keep it, and another said he hadn't made up his mind.

At stake is the extra $3,100 minimum that lawmakers will see during the fiscal year that starts July 1. Some will see more than that amount.

The reason is that, after five years, the General Assembly did not vote to continue taking 12 unpaid furlough days during the fiscal year.

The issue has already reared its head in a Springfield-area election campaign. Republican House candidate Mike Bell of Edinburg issued a statement criticizing his opponent, Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, for voting in favor of a budget bill that did not continue the furloughs.

Scherer said she will not keep the money.

All Republicans voted against the bill that did not provide for continued furloughs.

Poe keeping it

State lawmakers have not had a raise since 2008, when their base salaries were set at the current $67,836. Most earn additional money — ranging from $10,327 to $27,477 — for serving in top committee posts or leadership positions.

For the past several years, though, lawmakers have voted to take 12 unpaid furlough days a year as a gesture showing they understand how serious the state's financial problems have been. Those unpaid days took $3,119 off the base salary, according to comptroller's office records.

The furlough days also cut the amount of the stipends. Committee chairs and the ranking minority party member on each committee each get a stipend of $10,327. The unpaid furlough days cut that to $9,852.

Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, earns both the base salary and a committee stipend. He said he plans to keep the additional money.

“I'll probably keep it. As you're well aware, I donate all of my per diem, $5,000 or $6,000 a year, to charity,” Poe said. “It's actually money we earned the last few years. We donated it back to the state.”

Poe said the idea of furlough days for lawmakers began at a time when senior state agency staff was required to take furlough days.

“Everybody was given their furlough days, and I thought that was appropriate we did that,” Poe said. “I don't think that's happening anymore.”

Gov. Pat Quinn spokesman Dave Blanchette said furlough days weren't imposed this year, and there is no plan at this time to impose them next year.

‘Lead by example'

Scherer, who as a freshman legislator earns just the base salary, said she will donate the extra money to charity.

“People are struggling right now, and we need to very clearly lead by example,” Scherer said. “I don't think it's right that we take a raise when other people are struggling. I feel we should give this back to the state.”

Scherer said she is working with Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka's office to figure out how to give her money back to the state. If that can't be worked out, she said, she will donate it to charity.

Scherer voted in favor of an auxiliary budget bill that lawmakers approve each year to enact provisions of the overall state budget. Among other things, the bill rejected cost-of-living-adjustments that would otherwise have been due lawmakers and kept daily expense money at the same rate. However, it no longer included the unpaid furlough days.

Bell criticized Scherer for voting in favor of that bill. He called it a vote in favor of a pay raise.

“That's not right,” Scherer said. “I said from the beginning we should not take a pay raise. I clearly asked before I voted for this that there are no lawmakers' raises in this. I read those lines specifically in there that it had no COLA.”

Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, also said he'll give the money to charity.

“I'm sure I'll give it to charity,” Davidsmeyer said. “It's disingenuous for us to talk about cuts in major programs and then give ourselves a pay raise.”

The furloughs were “a small token of a way we could lead by example,” he said.

Wrong message?

Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said he will make a donation to charity with the money at the end of the fiscal year.

“I plan to make a charitable contribution,” he said.

Manar voted against the auxiliary budget bill because he said it contained borrowing and made salaries to lawmakers a continuing appropriation, meaning Quinn can no longer veto them like he did last year.

“Like all expenses in state government, they should be weighed against each other,” Manar said. “We don't have a continuing appropriation for schools, so why should we have it for any other expense, let alone salaries for lawmakers?”

Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville, said he hasn't taken time to think about it yet, but he said ending furlough days for lawmakers sends the wrong message.

“I just don't think it is appropriate at this time that we should be increasing our pay when the rest of the state continues to struggle,” he said.

If he decides to donate the extra money to a charity, it likely will be the Lincoln Land Community College Foundation, he said.

Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, and Sens. Sam McCann, R-Carlinville, Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, and John Sullivan, D-Rushville, could not be reached for comment.

Brauer, Brady and McCann all earn committee stipends in addition to their base pay. Sullivan makes $20,649 in addition to his base pay as an assistant majority leader to Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. That stipend was reduced to $19,699 because of the furloughs.

Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, said lawmakers had no choice because a court ruling last summer said they could not reduce their salaries through furlough days. The state constitution prohibits reducing salaries of elected officials during their terms of office.

“Legally, there's a prohibition against that,” he said. “The best we can do based on legal precedent was to freeze our salaries.”